Subject: Wine

• Small Plates: Wednesday, 5/30

  May 30, 2007

• Wine Spectator: January 15, 2008

  December 18, 2007

• Paul Newman Wine Dinner at Fleming's

  February 25, 2008

• The Noble Writ: Giving Cava Some Credit

  I'm not so crazy about Champagne. By Champagne, I don't mean sparkling wine in general or a $6 bottle of Cook's from California. I mean proper Champagne, the great sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France.During production, much Champagne is aged in its bottle with yeast for several years prior to release. This extended interaction with yeast gives Champagne a range of flavors that many people find compelling and record positively as toasty, yeasty, nutty or freshly-baked bread. But th

  June 2, 2009

• FoodWire: New Year's Eve at ~scape

  A look at the New Year's Eve $95 prix-fixe dinner at ~scape.

  December 18, 2008

• FoodWire: "Vintage Rock" Wine Dinner at Fleming's

  Fleming's (1855 South Lindbergh Boulevard) is holding a "Vintage Rock" wine dinner on Tuesday, March 10, and Friday, March 13. The dinner features wines from Mick Fleetwood and, uh, the manager of the Doobie Brothers. (I would have been really impressed if they had chosen a wine by Maynard James Keenan of Tool.)The four-course menu:"Groovy" goat cheese & oven-dried tomato crostini paired with "Double Platinum" Champagne cocktail by 101 Champagne Cocktails author Kim Haasarud"Rockin'" shrimp

  February 27, 2009

• The Noble Writ: Chardonnay for the Chardonnay Haters

  Dave Nelson is the author of the blog Beer, Wine and Whisky. He writes about wine for Gut Check every Tuesday.The world produces an ocean of chardonnay. In California alone, almost 100,000 acres of this incredibly popular grape variety are planted. That's enough chardonnay to make -- using modest crop and efficiency estimates -- over 250,000,000 bottles. Add the chardonnay acreage in France and Australia, and the worldwide total pushes 400,000 acres.Given chardonnay's ubiquity, it's not surpris

  March 3, 2009

• The Noble Writ's Under-$20 Oregon Pinot Noir Shootout

  Dave Nelson is the author of the blog Beer, Wine and Whisky. He writes about wine for Gut Check every Tuesday.In just about any wine store, and even in many grocery stores, the pinot noir selection seems to keep growing and growing. Frankly, I thought there would be a plateau and then perhaps a fall as we got further removed in time from The Movie, but there are few signs of things slowing down.I'm actually happy about that: Pinot noir can be an incredibly tasty, food-friendly wine. For many pe

  April 7, 2009

• FoodWire: Wine Dinner at Remy's Kitchen & Wine Bar

  Remy's Kitchen & Wine Bar (222 South Bemiston Avenue; Web site) will hosts its monthly wine dinner at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21. This month's guest is Lucas Meeker, assistant winemaker at Meeker Vineyards. Executive Sous Chef will preparing the following menu to pair with Meeker wines: Cabrales flan w/ rosemary-roasted wild mushrooms & dried cherry and fig compoteMeeker Gold Leaf Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon 2003, Mendocino CountyFennel sausage-stuffed Heritage Acres pork loin roast w/ cri

  April 9, 2009

• Drink of the Week: 2006 Green & Red Chiles Mill Vineyard Estate Zinfandel

  Juniper Grill
  1928 S. 12th Street
  314-621-9195

  October 1, 2008

• Great Grapes!

  September 3, 2008

• The King Is Dead

  August 13, 2008

• Not Quite Ripe: Send it back. Bottle Shock's corked.

  August 6, 2008

• Which Red with Bread

  April 23, 2008

• Varietal Show

  April 2, 2008

• Goblet Up!

  Webster Groves gets a wine bar. Will Ian drink to that?

  November 28, 2007

• Roger Lassarat 2003 Pouilly-Fuissé

  February 21, 2007

• Get Thee To a Winery!

  Area vintners serve happiness in a bottle

  May 24, 2006

• Sniff, Swirl and Snip

  March 1, 2006

• Can't Top Tapas

  September 13, 2006

• Viva the Diva!

  November 15, 2006

• Take Notes

  January 10, 2007

• Better Red Than Rouge?

  April 11, 2007

• The Summer of Shiraz

  July 18, 2007

• Bone Appétit

  Villa Farotto makes it OK to love meat

  November 3, 2004

• 2005 The Four Graces Pinot Noir

  April 18, 2007

• The Wine Master

  April 18, 2007

• Bounty by the County

  July 19, 2006

• Nino Franco Prosecco Rustico

  Lorenzo's Trattoria, 1933 Edwards Avenue, 314-773-2223.

  July 5, 2006

• Copia Runneth Over

  The food's delish, but Copia still needs to prove a thing or two to oenephiles

  December 21, 2005

• Ghost Gum Wine Flight

  Juniper Grill, 1928 South 12th Street, 314-621-9195.

  May 18, 2005

• The Grapes of Mirth

  Jonathan Nossiter's wine documentary is subversive, funny and humane

  May 18, 2005

• Clos Mimi 2003 Petite Rousse Syrah; Tulocay 2001 Pinot Noir

  Wine Merchant, 20 South Hanley Road, Clayton; 314-863-6282

  March 2, 2005

• Best Wine List in a Restaurant

  Riddle's Penultimate Café and Wine Bar

  September 29, 2004

• Sofia Mini Blanc de Blancs

  World Market, 24 Brentwood Promenade Court, Brentwood, 314-918-7800

  September 22, 2004

• $12 Wine Flight

  The Crossing, 7823 Forsyth Boulevard, Clayton, 314-721-7375

  April 21, 2004

• The Noble Writ: Tell Me a Story

  We live in a time when well-made wine is readily available to just about everyone. You can walk into most grocery stores -- not to mention wine shops -- and find dozens of wines that are cleanly and soundly made starting at or below $5 a bottle.But I need a wine to be more than "good." A "good," technically sound wine isn't what feeds my passion. I need a wine to draw me in -- to capture my attention with something distinctive. Sure, there's a base level of quality that needs to be met, but the

  June 9, 2009

• The Noble Writ: Is the Bloom off the Kiwi?

  The wine world has seen few success stories like New Zealand sauvignon blanc. In the past decade, the country's production of sauvignon blanc has increased by 800%, and the value of all wine exported from New Zealand is set to top NZ$1 billion next year. Sauvignon blanc put New Zealand on the wine map and continues to dominate the nation's output.In addition to aggressive export, the New Zealand wine community has been at the forefront of two revolutions. First, as an industry, it committed ear

  June 16, 2009

• The Noble Writ: Vino Soave

  Remember chugging Lancer's, Mateus, Black Tower or Blue Nun in the parking lot before the Three Dog Night concert?Me neither.But I certainly hear plenty of quasi-wistful reminiscences about them. I was relatively surprised to learn that many people lumped one of my favorite white wines, Soave, in with these pop-culture laughingstocks.It seems that in a decade not too long ago Soave was the Italian white wine -- the pinot grigio of its day. As with so many things, popularity bred mediocrity as pl

  June 23, 2009

• The Best of Gut Check: The Noble Writ

  Dave Nelson is the author of the blog Beer, Wine and Whisky. He writes about wine for Gut Check every Tuesday.While Gut Check is on vacation this week, check out some of Dave's best work:Chardonnay for the Chardonnay Hater (March 3, 2009):The world produces an ocean of chardonnay. In California alone, almost 100,000 acres of this incredibly popular grape variety are planted. That's enough chardonnay to make -- using modest crop and efficiency estimates -- over 250,000,000 bottles. Add the cha

  July 7, 2009

• FoodWire: "Divine Swine" Wine Dinner at Five

  The recently relocated Five (5100 Daggett Avenue; Web site) is hosting the "Divine Swine" wine dinner on Thursday, July 23, at 7 p.m. The five-course meal features pork, pork and more pork -- all from Benne's Farm in St. Charles -- as well as wine from the Two Angels winery. The cost is $55 per person (tax and tip not included), and reservations are required. Call 314-773-5553 for more info or to make reservations.Check out the menu after the jump.

  July 21, 2009

• The Noble Writ: Romo-ance and a Romo-rant

  This week we're going to delve into yet another virtually extinct grape variety that, in the right hands, makes absolutely delicious wine: romorantin. First, though, a bit of a rant. There are more worthy grapes out there than just cab, merlot, pinot noir and chardonnay. And, for the really adventurous drinkers out there, more than zinfandel, syrah, sauvignon blanc and riesling too!Limiting your wine experience to these superstars is like having the Crayola 64 pack, using the red, blue, green a

  July 21, 2009

• The Noble Writ: Pairing Pizza with Wine, via Piedmont

  Wait, it's pizza and beer, right? Not in my book. As someone who loves beer, pizza and wine to degrees that would probably embarrass most folks, I'm mystified how this generic "match" has become a ubiquitous populist myth.What kind of beer? What kind of pizza? What kind of wine? These are areas rife with variations and passionately-held pedantic points of honor.The most critical pizza component when deciding which beverage to pair is the sauce. Basically, any pie with a tomato-based sauce is go

  July 28, 2009

• The Noble Writ: Corkage with Class

  On the relatively few occasions when I dine at a nice restaurant, I'm usually seen carrying my "geek bag." (I have used the 820 model for almost ten years.) Inside will be three or four wines from my cellar that I am willing to pay to open pursuant to the restaurant's corkage policy.A restaurant that allows corkage permits you to bring in a bottle of your own wine and drink it on its premises for a set fee. In St. Louis, this fee usually ranges from $10 to $25, and many finer dining restaurants

  August 4, 2009

• The Noble Writ: A Riesling Primer

  Riesling is my favorite white grape variety, and if pressed, I'd probably choose it as my favorite grape overall (pinot noir being its only real competition). So it pains me that so many folks interested in wine seem to ignore it, if not deride or despise it. There are many misconceptions about riesling, and the German on many riesling labels acts as a further barrier. However, no other grape so clearly articulates where it is grown, which makes the effort not only worthwhile, but obligatory for

  August 11, 2009

• FoodWire: Veritas Hosting Pahlmeyer Wine Dinner August 19

  Veritas Gateway to Food and Wine (1722 Clarkson Road) is hosting a five-course dinner featuring Pahlmeyer Wines on Wednesday, August 19, at 6:30 p.m. Pahlmeyer Winery sales manager Dave Landis will be a guest. Pahlmeyer Wines include the "Jayson" line, named after founder Jayson Pahlmeyer, which even a cheapskate like yours truly knows is good grape juice.Dinner costs $125 per person. Reservations are required and -- very important -- limited to only twenty-four diners. Call 636-530-9505 to make

  August 11, 2009

• The Noble Writ: Are Sulfites Friend or Foe?

  One of the larger areas of misconception surrounding wine is the use of sulfur compounds, most commonly sulfur dioxide (SO2), during the wine-making process. Many consumers seem to misunderstand why most winemakers add SO2 and what ill effects it might cause. Given that all wines containing more than 10 parts per million of sulfites are required by the Food and Drug Administration to sport a deadly-serious-looking official government label that warns of their presence, it isn't surprising that m

  September 8, 2009

• The Noble Writ: Comfort Wine

  My tastes generally run to the esoteric, the obscure, the endangered and, sometimes, the downright odd. Which isn't to say I can't and don't appreciate more "mainstream" wines, because I can and do, but with so many wines available in the market, I can't resist the urge to explore.Occasionally, however, I want a sure thing. One of the wines that has served steadfastly in this role for me over the past seven vintages or so is the Les Hérétiques bottling from the Iché family at Chateau d'Oupia

  September 15, 2009

• The Noble Writ: Wine Shopping from Afar

  A point comes in many wine lovers' lives when they are unable to find a bottle they really want in their local wine shops. It might be a wine from the birth year of a special person, a bottle enjoyed while traveling or just something about which they've read that simply captivates their imagination.The simple fact about wine distribution is that far from everything is available in any particular market. While we St. Louisans are relatively well placed in a large metropolitan area spanning two st

  October 20, 2009